Marathon labour delivers 7lb girl for Rob and Marian

Ireland’s World Champion walker Rob Heffernan had another reason to celebrate yesterday when his wife, Marian, gave birth to a baby girl.

Writing on the Rob & Marian Heffernan Facebook page just after 6pm yesterday, the world 50km walk champion said: “Life doesn’t get any better than this. New baby daughter, so proud of my wife Marian and the magnificent staff in the Cork CUH. Thanks to everybody for the well wishes.”

He had taken to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to tell his followers that Marian’s waters had broken. The tongue-in-cheek tweet read: “How inconsiderate of my darling wife’s waters to break in the middle of a hard training session this morning ;)”